25.08.2026

WAUHAUS Brings Garden on the Grave to Homo Novus Festival

 

The Helsinki-based arts collective WAUHAUS will bring its site-specific audio performance Garden on the Grave to Latvia this September, as part of the International Festival of Contemporary Theatre Homo Novus in Riga.

The Helsinki-based arts collective WAUHAUS is bringing its site-specific audio performance Garden on the Grave to Riga's Homo Novus festival this September.

Billed as "the slow labour of decay," the hour-long audiowalk takes place in a working cemetery, guiding participants through solitary and shared actions — somatic exercise, a death meditation, ritual — via their own smartphones and headphones. Rather than dwelling only on loss, it reframes the cemetery as a living ecosystem sustained by decay.

Directed by Samuli Laine and Jussi Matikainen, the piece premiered in 2025 at Copenhagen's Assistens Cemetery as part of the PARKLIFE series, before touring to CPH Stage. For Riga, it's been adapted into Latvian and English with a new voice-over and local production support from the New Theatre Institute of Latvia.

Performances run at Riga's Great Cemetery from 9–12 September, with a relaxed, audio-described show for visually impaired audiences on the closing Saturday morning.

 

TINFO 25 August 2026

Photo: Malla Madsen